Final Mineral King Cabin Pencil Drawings For Sale
More Mineral King Cabin Pencil Drawings For Sale
Fridays Are For Mineral King
You’ve been polite while I sell you pencil drawings of Mineral King cabins.
Today, let’s rest our eyes and minds with this photo of Mineral King:
Trail Guy will be leading a hike up to the Empire Mine area on July 27, 9 a.m. Depending on the state of my plantar fasciitis, I may be stumbling along at the back of the group. I don’t know yet where the hike will begin – Sawtooth parking lot? ranger station? bridge? More will be revealed in the fullness of time.
Would you like a tee shirt to go with that hike?
You can get yours here.
Oops. Still selling! No, I’m offering you the opportunity to own quality, custom Mineral King items.
Mineral King Cabin Pencil Drawings For Sale Now
In the last century, I began drawing people’s cabins in pencil while I lived in a cabin. These were mostly in and around Mineral King. My business name, Cabinart, was born at that time.
About ten years later, my friend Jennifer suggested that I make a book of drawings. Because this was all before print-on-demand, Amazon, assisted self-publishing, and all those other nifty tools, I called my cabin neighbor and friend Jane Coughran for help. She was a picture editor for Time-Life Books, and was thrilled to join me, as long as I allowed her to include historical photos. That decision took me about half of a second, and together in 1998, we published The Cabins of Mineral King.
All of the books and most of the original drawings sold. (You might get lucky on Amazon or eBay.)
Now that I am working on The Cabins of Wilsonia, I am looking for more space in my studio for all the new drawings. Thus, I located 18 unsold drawings from the Mineral King book (more, actually, but the others are too big for my scanner, so I’m not showing them.)
These drawings are available for anyone who would like to buy them. Six appear in today’s post with a BuyNow button; the other 12 will be in consecutive posts.
The prices are well below my current (and even my former) commission prices because I want to sell them and because they are on odd sized pieces of paper that might be a pain to frame. I’ve put the name as it appears in the book, the page # from the book, and the exact size of the piece of paper it is drawn on, in case you get lucky and have the perfect mat and frame waiting for one of these original pencil drawings.
Wildlife and Wildflowers in Mineral King
Today I will try to be quiet so you can enjoy some photos in peace.
Okay, I cannot contain myself. This guy was RIDING A BIKE down the Mosquito/Eagle Lakes trail. Strictly forbidden. Bad photo, but I wanted to let you all know to not do this. (ride your bike on a trail, not take bad photos) Now, shhhhhh (me, not you)
A Nice Walk in Mineral King
Just to review: a hike is when you take a pack and food; a walk is just a walk.
In addition to the Nature Trail/Wildflower Walk, there is a nice walk to the upper valley to a place we call Soda Springs. It might be 4 miles round trip.
Start here. Cross the bridge (unless you parked on the correct side already, which is the side that goes past the old pack station.)
Walk sort of uphill. Cross Crystal Creek. When you come to a sign that says trail pointing left, go right.
Encounter Trail Guy, wearing a Mineral King tee shirt. Ask him where you can get a tee shirt of your own. If he follows the advice that he gives me, he’ll pull a business card out of his pocket and hand it to you. If you are really lucky and catch him on a particularly hospitable day, he might invite you back to the cabin and sell you one on the spot.
Wow! Is this Soda Springs? Can I play in it?
Sure. Why don’t you leave a rusty handprint on a boulder?
Be sure to wipe your shoes, boys and girls. That’s BEFORE you go hiking or walking.
Making People Cry
My dear friend Natalie moved to Texas about 18 years ago. I still miss her. We email, write letters, talk on the phone very occasionally, and every so often we find a way to visit each other.
Natalie is such a great person that her boss and co-worker decided to buy a couple of paintings from me for her birthday. They chose Mineral King as the subject, because that is where Nat and I met back in 1986.
I think it was because she was so surprised, so touched and maybe a little bit tired that these paintings made her cry. I don’t think it was because she was so disappointed!
I love you, Nat!! I’m almost wishing I’d driven to SLO for a stranger’s wedding last month so we could have had a 2 hour visit. Might have been a little rude to the bride. . .
Another Mineral King Bridge
Back in the fall of 2011, we had ourselves a series about The Mineral King Bridge. You can see it beginning this date. Don’t worry, it will open in another tab or window, and I’ll be waiting right here for you to return.
If you follow this blog (and blessings on those of you who do, even those who never comment), then you might be aware that I have a love affair with the Oak Grove Bridge.
This post is about yet another bridge. It was built sometime between 1978 and 1985. It is a footbridge on the Nature Trail, aka Wildflower Walk.
These old guys built it sometime between 1978 and 1985. I didn’t ask them for specifics, but they might be too old to remember anyway. I just know that Mineral King became part of Sequoia National Park in 1978; I first began spending summers there in 1985 and the bridge was there.
They are inspecting the bridge because Trail Guy told them it needed some work. (Hey Sophie, you listening??)
See how it lists to port? (At least from this direction it is port.)
Trail Guy knows People. He can talk to them, and they heed his ideas and suggestions. He does not abuse this privilege, no need to worry about undue influence.
This is now the approach and step up from the uphill end of the Wildflower Walk. (Sophie, it is still sort of tall but we can do this now!)
Trail Guy thinks it is a little weak under this corner. Not the bridge, but the shoring up of the bridge. (When we have work done at our house, he operates as Inspector Gadget, Quality Control Expert.)
Me? I just think it is grand to get stuff fixed at all. That corner? Prolly good enough for gov’t work.
And you Old Guys? I was just messing with you to see if you read my blog. You know you are both timeless and classically handsome dudes.
Nature Trail aka Wildflower Walk in Mineral King
In Mineral King, you can walk from Cold Springs Campground up to the actual Mineral King valley on a trail, called “the Nature Trail”. That name bugs me. My faithful blog reading and commenting friend (Hi Mel!) suggested “the Wildflower Trail”. I prefer aliteration, and because I never take a pack or food when I use that trail, it is a walk. Thus, “Wildflower Walk”.
Every year, it seems there are new or interesting things to see. In the photo below, there are lots of white dots. This is Sierra Star Tulip, the most prolific I’ve ever seen it.
Look at this little thing! It actually comes in different sizes, but I didn’t have a quarter in my pocket to show you the differences.
This year there are clusters, something I don’t recall seeing in the past.
What is this? An unfamiliar flowering shrub. How can something be unfamiliar when I’ve been walking this trail since 1985?
Mr. Unfamiliar Shrub has these flowers. I didn’t stick my nose in them to see if there was a scent – I only just met them and didn’t want to overstep the bounds of politeness.
The Wildflower Walk has the best and most accessible aspens. I went nutso over them last fall. You can see those posts here and here and here and here. Here too. Go ahead. Each link will open in a new tab or window. I’ll wait.
There is a little footbridge. I’ll tell you more about that in another post. (Sophie, got some news for you!!)
Languid Ladies or Sierra Bluebells are one of the first flowers to bloom each year. I love blue.
I have no idea what these are. They are sort of boring. I usually don’t like white flowers because they are a little boring.
Sierra Forget Me Nots – sometimes they are called Sierra Stickseed. Sometimes they come in pink. I love blue.
Larkspur are sort of a bluish purple. I love blue and bluish purple.
Little white boring flowers.
These have the appropriate name of “Elephant Heads”. I can forgive them for not being blue.
Trail Work in Mineral King
Trail Guy and I have a weird hobby. When we hike, we like to improve trails. We toss rocks off, scrape out places for water to drain off the trail, improve water bars and just generally take notes on trails.
A favorite walk of mine is the almost 2 miles to the Franklin Creek crossing. (To refresh your memory, a hike is when you take food and wear a pack; a walk is just a walk.)
Crossing Franklin Creek can be scary early in the season. If you are lacking in depth perception as I am, it is really scary. This isn’t a very high water year, so we weren’t sure what to expect. I expected to take my shoes off and get a little relief to my stupid Plantar Fasciitis, and then to turn around and head for this:
When we got to the crossing, there was water flowing down the trail. No no, can’t have that! We began with a little water diversion, getting the water to flow off the trail and back into the creek.
We worked our way up toward the stream, where I removed my shoes and got into the water. Pretty soon, Trail Guy was shouting at me to move this rock and that rock (not because he was agitated, but because the water was roaring.) Eventually, he got tired of shouting and joined me in the stream. He crossed to discover the weak places.
This looks scary to me. If I had to cross, I’d do it barefoot and wade through rather than misstep or slip.
More rocks were moved. The idea was to break down the dam that well-meaning but uninformed hikers had built. If you build a dam for crossing, you will be crossing on a wet wall. If you break the dam and let the water flow through, you will be crossing on steps that are above the water. So, we cleaned out stones to allow for greater water flow.
See all that dry ground? It was under water when we first arrived.
Now, there are nicely spaced stepping stones across the creek, no water flowing down the trail, and no dam.
Way to go, Trail Guy!
(and I helped)